This section introduces aspects that may help facilitate a better understanding of the disclosure. Accordingly, these statements are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is or is not prior art.
According to the 2011 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) Preliminary Report, it is estimated that 21.2 million adult Americans, namely more than 10% of all adult Americans have trouble seeing. Among the 6.6 million working-age adults with blindness or visually impaired (BVI), 64% did not finish high school and approximately only 6% earned a Bachelor's or higher degree. The lack of proper and effective assistive technologies (AT) can be considered as a major obstacle for individuals that are BVI to actively participate in science and advanced research activities. It is still a challenge for them to perceive and understand scientific visual data acquired during wet lab experimentation, such as viewing live specimens through a stereo microscope or histological samples through light microscopy (LM). According to Science and Engineering Indicator 2014 published by NSF, no more than 1% of blind or visually impaired people are involved in advanced science and engineering research and receive doctoral degrees.
When using alternative single-modality human-computer interfaces (HCI), only limited visual information can be acquired due to different limitations of other senses. For instance, tactile-vision sensory substitution (TVSS) technologies, such as Tongue electrotactile array, and tactile pictures, have been demonstrated capable of conveying visual information of spatial phenomenology, however the low resolution of such somatosensory display arrays are a limitation of these methods to convey complex image information. Auditory-vision sensory substitution has also been studied in image perception. Trained early blind participants showed increased performance in localization and object recognition through this substitution. However, auditory-vision substitution involves the memorization of different audio forms and training is required to map from different audio stimulus to visual cues. The required attention on auditory feedback can decrease subjects' ability to get information from the environment. Existing solutions cannot help convey to blind persons the richness, complexity and amount of visual data readily understood by persons without disabilities. Therefore, improvements are needed in the field.